Judge halts expulsion of 5th grader over rap lyrics, squirt gun emoji until trial
A judge has ruled that an elite Mulholland Drive private school must reverse the expulsion of a 5th grade student over emails sent to a peer containing rap lyrics and the squirt gun emoji until the case can be heard at trial.
On Oct. 17, the parents of the expelled student filed a lawsuit against the Curtis School and Head of School Meera Ratnesar, alleging that the expulsion was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the school provided no evidence of a policy being violated or of the classmate feeling threatened.
This week Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch approved an order filed by the parent’s attorneys to temporarily halt the boy’s expulsion, according to court papers filed Thursday. The attorneys argued that expulsion is a harmful disruption to the student’s education and socialization, according to court documents.
The judge’s order took effect immediately and the student was free to return to school on Friday, according to court documents. However, the decision can be reconsidered if evidence emerges that the student poses a danger to students or faculty, and the school remains at liberty to impose alternative disciplinary measures, according to court documents.
A lawsuit says a boy was expelled over emails to another boy; one said, “You dead yet” with squirt guns. The pair went to a school fair together the next day.
The Curtis School is a prestigious elementary school with an annual tuition of $38,000 where many celebrities, such as Victoria and David Beckham, have sent their children.
School representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the order. In a statement shared last week, the school said it was disappointed by the litigation and committed to ensuring a safe and secure campus for all, but it declined to comment on individual students.
The student was expelled by Ratnesar on Oct. 1 over two email exchanges with a classmate.
On Sept. 5, the boy and a classmate sent emails back and forth containing lyrics from the YNW Melly song “Murder on My Mind,” which references guns and violence, according to court documents. Then on Sept. 25, the students engaged in another email exchange during their math class in which the boy sent messages on his school-issued laptop saying, “Shut up” and “I hate you” and included several green squirt gun emojis, and then said, “You dead yet,” to which the classmate responded, “No y.”
The parents allege that the boys are friends and hung out together immediately following the email exchanges, according to court documents. They also say that their son is a straight-A student who has faced no prior disciplinary action during his three years at the school, according to court documents.
Alyssa Esquivel claims she was eventually suspended without pay for wearing a “Trump-themed” backpack to the San Gabriel school where she worked as a teacher’s aide.
No disciplinary action was taken against the classmate, who, according to email records, instigated the Sept. 5 exchange of rap lyrics.
“We are deeply disappointed by your decision to base expulsion on emails between two classmates who both showed a willingness to talk about guns based on a song’s lyrics,” the parents wrote in an Oct. 2 email to Ratnesar, urging her to reconsider the expulsion.
Ratnesar acknowledged in an Oct. 1 email that the classmate started the email exchange but said their son’s “contribution of lyric lines in addition to continuing to communicate threatening emojis and language 20 days after the lyric exchange, is a serious infraction that we cannot ignore.”
The parents’ attorneys allege that Ratnesar has a reputation for “unequal and arbitrary treatment of students” and point to, as evidence, several reviews left by former families at the school that discuss alleged favoritism and discriminatory treatment by the head of school.
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